U.S. PIRG resource guide for Supreme Court oral arguments on Consumer Financial Protection Bureau case

Media Contacts
Ed Mierzwinski

Senior Director, Federal Consumer Program, U.S. PIRG Education Fund

Resources and interview opportunities for Tue., March 3 hearing

U.S. PIRG Education Fund

WASHINGTON –– The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments this coming Tuesday, March 3, 2020, in Seila Law LLC v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The justices will decide whether the separation-of-powers principle embedded in the Constitution prohibits Congress from creating an agency that is headed by a single director who is removable by the president only “for cause.” Kathy Kraninger, who was appointed to head the CFPB by President Trump in 2018, has decided to no longer defend the constitutionality of the bureau’s structure. We expect a decision by the end of this session in June 2020.

U.S. PIRG Education Fund joined an amicus brief filed on January 21, arguing that long-established principles and Supreme Court precedent support the constitutionality of the CFPB’s leadership structure. The brief also highlights that Congress purposefully created an independent bureau focused on consumer financial protection to avoid a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis.

The following experts are available to interview either over the phone or on camera in advance and Mike Landis will be at the Supreme Court on Tuesday for interviews:

Mike Landis oversees litigation in which U.S. PIRG Education Fund is involved. He regularly writes on consumer protection law and policy issues and has been quoted in major publications, including the Washington Post and USA Today.

Ed Mierzwinski oversees U.S. PIRG Education Fund’s federal consumer program, helping to lead national efforts to improve consumer credit reporting laws, identity theft protections, and a variety of CFPB-related protections against unfair credit card and bank practices, debt collection abuses, and predatory small dollar lending. 

Ed is a co-founder and a continuing leader of the coalition Americans For Financial Reform, which fought for the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, including its centerpiece, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He has testified before Congress on the CFPB, appeared as an expert panelist at numerous CFPB events and authored or co-authored numerous reports on CFPB activities.

Related U.S. PIRG Education Fund CFPB resources:

  • Click here for an overview of U.S. PIRG Education Fund’s Defend the Consumer Bureau campaign.
  • Click here for our January 2020 statement when U.S. PIRG Education Fund filed its amicus brief in this case.
  • Click here for our October 2019 statement when the Supreme Court agreed to hear this case.
  • Click here for our September 2019 statement when the CFPB agreed to retain its public-facing consumer complaint database.
  • Click here for our May 2019 report about the CFPB consumer complaint database.
  • Click here for our March 2019 statement about Kathy Kraninger’s congressional testimony.
  • Click here for our February 2019 statement about the CFPB gutting its own payday lending protections.
  • Click here for our December 2018 report about how states need to fill the void when the CFPB doesn’t adhere to its mission.

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